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Pictures & images of artefacts and art of ancient Babylon. The Ishtar Gate was the eighth gate to the inner city of Babylon. It was constructed in about 575 BC by order of King Nebuchadnezzar II on the north side of the city. Dedicated to the Babylonian goddess Ishtar, the gate was constructed using a rare blue stone called lapis lazuli with alternating rows of bas-relief mu??u??u (dragons) and aurochs. Through the gate ran the Processional Way, which was lined with walls covered in...more »

Pictures & images of artefacts and art of ancient Babylon. The Ishtar Gate was the eighth gate to the inner city of Babylon. It was constructed in about 575 BC by order of King Nebuchadnezzar II on the north side of the city. Dedicated to the Babylonian goddess Ishtar, the gate was constructed using a rare blue stone called lapis lazuli with alternating rows of bas-relief mu??u??u (dragons) and aurochs. Through the gate ran the Processional Way, which was lined with walls covered in lions on glazed bricks.

Babylon was an Akkadian city-state founded in 1867 BC by an Amorite dynasty of ancient Mesopotamia. Babylon was probably the first a small town which had sprung up by the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC and is situated on the lower Euphrates river in southern Iraq. The town flourished and attained independence with the rise of the First Amorite Babylonian Dynasty in 1894 BC. In the mid 7th century Babylon was dissolved as it was invaded and settled by Arabs who brought Islam to the area.« less